Who Are the Turkmens of Syria?

Alpaslan Celik, center, commander of a Turkmen brigade in Syria, with parts believed to belong to a parachute from a downed Russian aviator near the border with Turkey on Tuesday.CreditCreditReuters

By The New York Times

Nov. 24, 2015

Turkmens or Turkomans are a Turkic people who live in significant numbers in many countries in Central Asia and the Middle East, including Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq, and are the dominant group in Turkmenistan. They have a culture and language related to Turkish; their name is said to derive from words meaning “Turk-like.”

In the context of Syria, though, the term is used somewhat differently, to refer mainly to people of Turkish heritage whose families migrated to Syria from Anatolia during the centuries of the Ottoman period — and thus would be closer kin to the Turks of Turkey than to the Turkmens of Central Asia.

A. Turkmens are concentrated in the northwest and along the Turkish border, where they comprise the majority in a number of villages and towns. They tend to be numerous in the same provinces where the Alawite minority, from which the ruling family of President Bashar al-Assad emerged, is strongest.

Q. How many are there?

A. No reliable figures are available, and estimates on the number of Turkmens in Syria and nearby countries vary widely, from the hundreds of thousands up to 3 million or more. The governments of Mr. Assad, and his father, Hafez al-Assad, banned them from writing or publishing in Turkish.

Turkmens living near the border town of Kobani have also organized a fighting unit that supports the Kurdish rebels there, and that battles mainly against Islamic State militants.

Video

Video taken at the Turkey-Syria border shows an aircraft that Turkey says it shot down after its airspace was violated on Tuesday.Published OnNov. 24, 2015CreditCreditFatih Akta/Anadolu Agency, via Getty Images

Tensions between Russia and Turkey have increased lately over Russian bombing of Turkmen tribesmen in northern Syria. Just this week, Turkey summoned the Russian ambassador in Ankara to demand that Moscow stop targeting Turkmen tribesmen in Syria.

On Tuesday, Turkey shot down a Russian warplane in a Turkmen area near the Syrian border, saying it had violated Turkish airspace. A Turkmen commander, Alpaslan Celik, was quoted in Turkish media saying that rebels had killed both Russian pilots who parachuted from the plane after it was shot down.

The Russian Ministry of Defense confirmed late Tuesday that one fighter pilot had been killed by ground fire. A Russian marine deployed on a search-and-rescue helicopter also died.